Franchise chains are growing, but the safety of their employees is still outside the code
According to data from the Polish Organization of Franchisees (POF), approximately 83,000 were active before the pandemic. franchise agreements, while internal surveys indicate a 5% increase in the market, resulting in approx. 87 thousand contracts currently. Food companies in particular recorded a spectacular influx of franchisees during the pandemic – by as much as 10-20% depending on the brand.
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The Code of Good Practice is not enough
The main act that regulates franchise operations in Poland is the "Code of Good Practices for the Franchise Market". This document addresses the issues of practices, principles and standards that franchisees and franchisors should follow in their cooperation. The Code focuses, among others, on: in areas such as establishing and principles of mutual cooperation and resolving disputes. However, the main problem is still the failure to take into account health and safety standards – this agreement focuses only on the relations between franchisees and franchisors.
– What is incomprehensible to us as security experts is the fact that the largest franchisors, who in their strategies, areas of ESG reporting and corporate social responsibility, refer to activities that focus primarily on people and their needs as well as the needs of the entire team, do not paid attention to the safety and health issues of their franchisees. For comparison, Section 10 of the Labor Code contains rules such as the employer's obligations to provide employees with appropriate working conditions, the employee's rights to refrain from performing hazardous work and the obligations of employees and persons managing employees in the field of health and safety – says Monika Grządziela, an expert on security of the retail industry, W&W Consulting.
Franchising does not protect employees
Currently, occupational health and safety inspectors face many new challenges, beyond standard safety, hygiene and work ergonomics. According to the report of the ArteMis group "Pressure of change and emotions and mental health in the work environment" (2024), counteracting stress and burnout among employees should also play an increasingly important role, because as many as 52% of them feel emotional overload, 36% some form of stress, and according to 54%, work causes them a lot of stress and fatigue. What is particularly important, employed people also notice dangerous symptoms in their co-workers – 48% believe that their co-workers are struggling with burnout, 47% with mental exhaustion, and 25% with depression.
– The issue of occupational health and safety of people employed within franchise chains no longer concerns only physical health, but also the well-being of employees and counteracting stress and burnout. These areas have been completely omitted in the code of good practice for the franchising market, which focuses only on the relations between the franchisor and the franchisee and the conditions of their operation, completely disregarding the health care needs – both physical and mental. In order to protect employee safety, the code of good practice should be supplemented with occupational health and safety standards that are already included in the labor code . The current state of affairs, in extreme cases, may lead to violations of employees' rights, exposing them to threats, an increase in accidents and thus employee absenteeism, as well as exposing them to stress and burnout in the workplace. These points will constitute the basis for unifying health and safety standards, which will contribute to building a safety culture in franchisees' outlets – sums up Monika Grządziela, retail industry safety expert, W&W Consulting.
